Kingdom Konvention
by KK-Sider
Summary: After all the battles are fought and lost hearts are saved, how do Sora and the gang unwind? Why, by going to a convention, of course! Join our characters as they go to panels, see amazing sights, and get into cosplay.
1. Chapter 1

**Happy October, fanfiction readers! Welcome to my newest fanfiction. After taking a couple months off of updates, I came up with this strange idea after watching the latest trailer for Kingdom Hearts 2.8. I hope you guys enjoy this story and the experiences I have the KH cast go through.**

 **Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and SquareEnix. I do not own any of these characters.**

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On the first day of June, morning crept slowly over the city. Upon entering a particular hotel, one would find people that were not native to this city. On the fourth floor, in room 413, there slept a group of boys: all with varying hairstyles and colors and at different heights. The tallest and oldest of the bunch was strewn across the couch with half of his body hanging off the side, his red hair jutting out in all angles. He was the only man who felt completely comfortable sleeping in only a pair of white boxers: his excuse being that it was "too freaking hot down here".

On the pull-out futon, there were two more boys asleep. The one next to the wall slept with an arm rested beneath his head of silver hair. The slightly pulled back blanket revealed a black tank top, and he was the only one brave enough to sleep with a pair of long, grey sweatpants. The second boy on the futon had blond hair spiked in a windswept manner. He wore a white tank with grey boxers and kept a lone arm draped off the side of the futon. Most of his half of the shared blanket was scrunched up next to him as he buried his face into his pillow.

In one of the two beds was the second oldest among the group of boys, and perhaps the second most still in his slumber. With a head of brown hair that had bangs to frame his face, this young man slept on his side, an arm under his head as he slept at peace, wearing a grey tank top with black boxers.

In the second bed rested the two youngest boys in the room. The first was another blond, his hair similar to the first, and he slept the most soundly, curled up in a little ball with the covers pulled around him. Underneath the covers, he wore a pale green shirt and white boxers. Next to him, with his face half buried in a pillow and mouth slightly agape, was a boy with brown hair spiked in all directions. He wore a white, slightly baggy shirt with red shorts.

None of the room's occupants stirred immediately, still in slumber as the sun began to peak over the horizon. As they continued to sleep, the door to their hotel room began to open. Silently, three girls stepped into the room. Entering first was a young girl of pure heart with auburn hair reaching slightly past her shoulders and blue-violet eyes. She wore a pink tank top and matching pj pants. Upon seeing the boys, still sleeping, she made a small frown. "Honestly? They're still asleep?"

"Maybe we should give them some time, Kairi?" the second of the three girls asked. She had short, black hair and blue eyes that matched the ocean. Her pajamas were very beach-y, decorated with pictures of seashells.

In response to her question, Kairi shook her head and said, "No, Xion. We all came out here to go to this convention, and if we want to enjoy it all, we have to get up early so we can get our costumes on and grab some breakfast." She then turned her head to third woman with them. "Isn't that right, Aqua?"

"Yes, that's right. And I know at least a couple of these boys will take a while to get moving." The oldest of the three women, Aqua had light blue hair reaching down to the nape of her neck and blue eyes to match. She was the only one out of the three of them to have gotten out of pjs and was instead wearing some black pants and a black spaghetti strap. "So let's hurry and wake them. I'm sure Namine will need my help in fixing her hair."

The other younger girls nodded towards Aqua in silent agreement, and the three of them stepped further in the room to wake everyone. Aqua and Kairi started by going to the beds while Xion went over to the futon. After a moment of wondering how to approach the situation, Xion eventually knelt down and rubbed the shoulder of the blond boy.

"Roxas, wake up," she said gently. "It's morning. We have to get ready."

After another moment or two, Roxas let out a moan and turned his head. Once he opened his blue eyes, he stared back for a moment. "Oh, Xion, it's you…"

Slowly, he lifted himself up with his arms and sat up. His shifting caused the futon's other occupant to begin stirring as well. Roxas rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes and asked, "What time is it? Did we sleep in?"

Xion shook her head. "No, it's only 7 o'clock, but Aqua said we should wake up right now, since she and Axel need some extra time for their costumes." As the former nobody nodded to this response, Xion looked past him and said, "Good morning, Riku."

"Mm, good morning…" Riku sat up and stretched before looking around the room, his aquamarine eyes adjusting to the little light in the room. "So, we're the first ones up?"

Xion nodded quietly, and Roxas stood up and meandered to the couch, saying, "I'll get Axel."

While he began to nudge Axel, eliciting moans from the man, Aqua tried to shake Terra with little success. Slightly frustrated, she said, "Terra, come on! We need to get moving!"

Terra opened his eyes blearily for a second before turning around and pulling the covers closer, mumbling, "Not now, Aqua…"

Aqua let out an annoyed huff, thinking aloud, "God, act your age…"

Kairi let out a slight huff as well once she failed to get her childhood friend to move. Seeing this, Riku got up and walked over to her, asking, "Sora's still not getting up?"

"Yeah," she grumbled. "I swear, he IS the biggest sleepyhead in the world."

"Let's just turn on a light," Riku said, walking over to turn on the lights, despite Roxas's protests of not wanting to adjust to sudden light yet. Riku flipped the switch, causing those awake in the room to squint at the sudden brightness, as well as getting reactions from at least half of the four still waking.

"Damn! Give a warning next time!" the red-headed man on the couch exclaimed as he and Terra sat up, attempting to shield their eyes.

Riku gave him a casual shrug. "Sorry, Axel, but-"

"God, I keep telling you guys, my name is Lea!"

Riku stared back blankly at him for a moment. Since becoming a whole person again, Axel had tried to get other to call him by his real name. After a while, he gave up and allowed everyone to call him whatever they wanted (most stuck with Axel save for a few people), so what was making him so irritated now? Riku sighed, figuring that this was a result of being grouchy when woken up, and said, "I know, but you only have yourself to blame. You kept telling everyone as Axel to 'get it memorized', so you have to expect some of us to keep calling you that. Anyways, you guys need to get up, or we'll miss out on the convention."

While Axel let out some inaudible grumbles to himself, grabbing a spare shirt in the process, Terra rubbed at his eyes to adjust to the light and mumbled, "Yeah, whose idea was it to do this again?"

"It was Sora's, remember?" Aqua reminded him. "After everything we've been through, he thought that getting some time away from our responsibilities would help us relax."

"Yeah, I guess…"

After a moment of silence, the two of them heard a soft moan on the other bed and looked to see the second blond slowly uncurling from his balled-up position. After some more slow movement on his part, the young boy rolled over and blearily opened his deep blue eyes, mumbling, "G'mornin…"

Terra and Aqua both smiled softly at their younger companion, and Aqua reached out and ruffled the boy's hair, saying warmly, "Good morning, Ventus. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Mm-hm…" Ventus stretched a little more, letting out a big yawn. After propping himself onto his elbows, he asked, "What time is it?"

"A little after seven," Terra replied. "The girls came to wake us up so we can get ready for the convention."

After another moment of processing the brunette's words, Ventus jumped into a more alert state. He bolted up from the bed and exclaimed, "Oh yeah! We have to get dressed up, don't we?"

"That's right."

"I can't wait to see who we're dressing up as!" he said excitedly before swinging his legs over to the side of the bed and getting up. "Aqua, you and the girls picked good outfits, right?"

"Yeah, I think you guys will like them," Aqua said with a smile.

"Come on, Sora!"

Everyone looked over to see Kairi had resorted to grabbing the young brunette's leg, trying to pull him off of the bed. Sadly, she could only really get him to the edge of the bed. Eventually, her grip slipped, and she fell to the ground with a thud.

"Urgh! Why is he such a heavy sleeper?!" Kairi asked, frustration in her voice.

"Kairi, you should already know by now that he's always been a heavy sleeper," Riku said, shaking his head with an amused look on his face.

"Well, that doesn't help with getting him up," Axel said, now wearing a deep red tank top. "If he doesn't get moving soon, we'll miss out on picking up our breakfast."

Everyone sat around, trying to think of a way to wake up the person responsible for getting them into this hotel in the first place. After a long moment of thought, Roxas finally spoke up. "I think I've got an idea." Looking over at Xion, he said, "Xion, could you go and grab Axel's hair gel by the bathroom? It should be in a little green bottle."

"Oh, okay."

As she left to get what Roxas asked for, Axel looked over at his friend in slightly confusion. "Um, what do you need my hair gel for, Rox?"

"Well, I need something wet."

Now, everyone was giving him a confused look, and as Xion re-entered the area, a small bottle in her hand, Kairi asked, "Um, why do you…?"

"Just watch," Roxas replied with a slight sigh. After grabbing the bottle and thanking Xion, he crawled onto the bed and bent down closely to Sora. With great care, he opened the bottle and squirted a small drop of hair gel onto his finger. He smiled, glad to feel that the gel was cool to the touch, and he reached out to spread the gel on Sora's exposed cheek. Instinctively, Sora moaned and wiped at the cold substance. Roxas watched his face scrunch slightly, confused at what he was touching. So, Sora opened his eyes, shocked at seeing his former nobody's face mere inches away from him.

"WHOA!" Sora backed away, not expecting to be at the edge of the bed, and immediately dropped like a boulder onto the floor.

"Ow…" Sora rubbed the back of his now sore head and sat up once he heard laughter coming from a few of his friends. He looked around the room, and after noticing the girls, he said a little dumbly, "Oh, uh… Hey ladies. What are you doing here?"

"We have to get up, Sora," Kairi responded, her frustration, admittedly, melting away at her friend's dopey response. "Remember? We're dressing up for this convention."

"Oh yeah…" Sora let out a nervous laugh, getting up from his spot on the floor. "Namine has the outfits, right? I guess we better not leave her waiting. Let's go, guys!"

With that, Sora was the first to walk towards the exit. Slowly, everyone followed the excitable boy. As they walked, Xion said, "Wow, he's super tired one second and easily excitable the next. Has he always been like that?"

Riku chuckled lightly, deciding to answer the young raven-haired girl. "Yeah, basically."

With smiles, everyone walked over to the room where the girls had been sleeping, hoping that Sora's high energy would transfer over to them once they got into their costumes, ate breakfast, and left the hotel to go their first anime convention. This was the beginning of what would surely be a fun-filled weekend.

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 **And that's the intro to this story taken care of. I hope all of you have enjoyed it. Next time, Sora and the gang will be getting into their costumes for the convention. Stay tuned, and have a great day!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Good evening, everyone. I hope the beginning of October is serving you well. For me, I'm getting a lucky break in my current career. Starting tomorrow, I'll be co-teaching first grade at an elementary school. So, in order to celebrate it, I've got another update of Kingdom Konvention. I hope you guys enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: While I have a (plastic) keyblade, the Kingdom Hearts franchise itself belongs to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura.**

* * *

Everyone crowded around one of the beds, each with varying levels of curiosity and excitement. Watching them from where she sat, Namine was a little amused. Combing back her blond hair, she said, "Well, it's good to see you guys are ready."

"Well, mostly," Aqua said with a shrug, staring at her male companions. "Some of the boys here had a bit of a slow start."

"Well, excuse me for enjoying the comforts of my couch," Axel immediately said in response, his emerald eyes showing slight hints of a tired glare.

After a couple of laughs went through the room, Sora asked, "So, Namine, what sort of outfits did you make for us?"

"Well, I did a little bit of research into this world that we've landed in for this convention. It turns out that a lot of the worlds we've been to before are known in this one as movies. So, I thought it would be fun if we dressed up as some of the people we've met." Namine reached over the edge of the bed and pulled up a few bags. "I talked with Aqua and Kairi about who is dressing up as whom, and then Xion helped me in making the clothes. So, just look around in these bags. In each of them are a couple bagged outfits. Your name will be on the bag with your costumes."

As Sora and Ventus immediately tore into the bags, excitement on their faces, Namine turned back to Aqua and said, "Aqua, everything for your costume is already hanging by the bathroom door."

"Thank you, Namine. I'll make sure to take care of your hair first."

"Um, Namine, should we be worried about what you girls are making us wear?" Roxas questioned, looking at his bag as if worried about what he'd find.

Namine shook her head calmly. "Don't worry, Roxas. There's nothing too revealing in these bags. And if you truly feel uncomfortable with what we picked out, I tried to pack extra clothes in my suitcase that you can work with."

Roxas paused, thinking about how he felt about this. After a moment, though, the boy nodded, satisfied with this answer and went to go back to the boy's hotel room to change. Most of the other boys left the room as well, leaving the girls and Riku left in the room. Upon noticing he hadn't left, Kairi asked, "What's wrong, Riku? Are you worried about your costume?"

"No, it's not that," Riku answered, shaking his head. "It's just, I noticed there's no wig in this bag."

"Yeah, that's right. I think Ven is the only one we gave a wig for."

"But, why? I thought that most people wore wigs when dressing up for conventions."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that, Riku," Namine responded with a soft smile. When she had his and Kairi's attention, the blond girl continued, "It's not just the worlds we've been to that are seen as fictional in this world. Apparently, our adventures were made into a series of video games here. If we don't wear wigs, the others at the convention might just see us as the characters of this 'Kingdom Hearts' series, playing dress-up."

"Oh…" Riku slowly walked out, a slightly baffled look on his face. Honestly, he couldn't help but wonder just what their adventures would look like in a video game, considering what crazy things they had to fight against…

* * *

The next several minutes were spent changing into costumes and brushing teeth and hair. Kairi was the quickest out of the girls to be ready and stepped out excitedly. She wore a pretty little blue dress with a big blue bow in her hair. According to Sora, this was a dress that Ariel had worn when she first got her legs in order to meet her prince. The princess of heart beamed even more as she recalled who her two best friends would be dressing up as. Giddily, she thought, _'I can't wait to see Sora dressed as my 'prince'. He'll look great!'_

As if manipulated by her thoughts, Sora and Riku popped out of their room in their costumes. While opening the door, Sora was speaking to his friend. "Geez, don't I look spiffy, Riku? I've always wanted to dress up like Prince Eric!"

"I'm happy for you, Sora," Riku responded calmly, humoring his childhood friend as he adjusted his own coat. Riku was dressed in an elaborate blue suit, lined in a golden yellow with a white shirt underneath. It was apparent to Riku that he was meant to be dressed up as Belle's prince, although he and Sora had only known him as the Beast.

Behind him, Sora had come out, wearing a simple white shirt, a pair of pants and a pair of black boots. He smiled, feeling like a sailor, as he prattled on, "If I'm being dressed up as Eric, I bet you anything Kairi is gonna be my Ari…"

Suddenly, he trailed off when he saw Kairi looking towards them, anxious to hear what they thought. Sora gasped and mumbled, "Whoa… Kai… You look great…"

She giggled, happy with Sora's compliment. "Thanks, Sora. Both of you look amazing, too."

Sora gave a gigantic grin while Riku pulled at his pulled-back hair, saying, "Well, that's good, I guess. Honestly, I feel a little strange. This seems a little much for going out, even if it is dress up…"

"Don't worry, Riku. You'll get used to it," Kairi assured.

Stepping in, Sora added, "Yeah! And honestly, you look really great, Riku!" He then turned to Kairi and asked, "Who will be his 'Belle', Kairi?"

Kairi opened her mouth to answer, but was caught off-guard when she heard the door behind her open. Smiling, she decided to answer Sora's question by saying, "Well, why don't you guys see for yourselves?"

Everyone looked and watched Xion step out of the room, her balance a little off as she was still adjusting to her high heels. She wore a poofy, yellow ballroom dress with straps instead of sleeves and a matching pair of ballroom gloves. As the boys marveled at her appearance, Kairi exclaimed, "That dress looks lovely on you, Xion!"

"Perhaps, but I don't know about these heels…" Xion gasped as she nearly missed her step and focused on her balance. "I'm not sure I like how they feel on my fee-ee-eeagh!"

Suddenly, she fell forward, and she would've fallen flat on her face if Riku hadn't stepped into to grab her. Concerned, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just need a little time. Give me a few minutes, and I'll get used to these heels." She stood up shakily, holding onto Riku for support. Once she was back on her feet again, the young keyblade master said, "So… You're going to be my Belle, huh?"

"Yeah, well, Kairi said she wanted me to get dolled up, I guess," Xion responded with a small shrug. "Not too sure yellow is my color, though…"

"Well, I-"

"I think you look awesome, Xion! Yellow looks great on you!" Sora interrupted cheerfully, causing Riku to let out a slight sigh of annoyance.

Xion laughed a little nervously before replying, "Thanks, Sora."

Suddenly, the door to the boy's room opened once again. This time, Roxas and Terra stepped out into the hallway. Roxas was pulling at his teal vest, not too comfortable with fabric. Overall, he had the appearance of a rogue: specifically, a rogue named Flynn Rider who Sora had met along with a girl named Rapunzel during their last adventure to face off against Xehanort. With a frown, Roxas said, "What's with these clothes? They feel scratchy."

"You're just thinking too hard, Roxas," Terra told him calmly. While he wasn't fussing with his clothes, he still questioned it in his mind. While Terra himself wasn't familiar with what he was wearing, a couple others would know he was dressed as Prince Philip from the Enchanted Dominion, complete with a red cape to pull it all together.

In response to the older man, Roxas frowned and said, "Thinking too hard? Terra, I'm basically wearing a burlap sack. Whose idea was it to dress me in this?"

Roxas looked out at the others, expecting a response. Instead, his eyes immediately went towards Riku, holding onto one of his best friends in what appeared, to him, as a loving embrace. Darkly, the blond boy scowled and stepped forward before pulling Xion away from him. "Hey, don't get so grabby, alright?"

Riku frowned slightly. He and the others knew that Roxas could be a little protective over Xion. While his memories of their first year together were still a little muddled, it was clear that a subconscious connection was still there. And as such, he was probably acting like this as a way to subconsciously protect her from being hurt again.

Wanting to clear things up, Xion said, "Hey, Roxas, it's nothing, really. He was just helping me get my balance back."

Roxas turned to look at her and gasped a little at her appearance. Momentarily forgetting what he had seen earlier, he said, "You look great, Xion. That's the dress Belle wore, right? I remember Sora told us about that."

Xion nodded quietly, mumbling, "Yes, he did."

Seeing that the situation was under control, the destiny island inhabitants turned to Terra. Giggling a little, Kairi said, "You look dashing, Terra."

"Yeah, well, I don't feel dashing…" Terra mumbled, messing with his cape as he said, "I feel like a bit of an idiot to be honest. I certainly hope Aqua looks better than me, for both of our sakes. With the pattern you girls have set up, I'm guessing she's meant to be my 'princess' this weekend."

Kairi giggled again, causing the boys to give her questioning looks. Seeing how amused she looked, Terra asked, "What's so funny?"

"Oh, you'll see," Kairi responded ambiguously, causing everyone to question what these girls had planned for their weekend.

At that moment, Aqua and Namine exited the room. Namine's hair was braided up, with colorful flowers in her hair, and she wore a simple, lavender dress with sleeves going slightly past her elbows. This outfit was very plain compared to Aqua's extravagant appearance. Upon her head was some sort of hat with two big, black horns attached. Out of all of the women there, she was the only one wearing make-up, with purple lipstick and thick, dark eye shadow. While she still had her pants and tank top on, there were now black arms bands that she wore that went from her shoulders down to her wrists. It looked as if there were more fabric attached, though, that would show if she spread her arms out.

Roxas turned his attention from Xion to Namine as he suddenly smiled, surprised with how she looked. "Namine, you look really cute. I guess if you're my Rapunzel, I don't mind wearing this burlap sack."

Namine blushed and looked down, smiling. "Thank you, Roxas."

"What on Earth are you wearing, Aqua?" Terra asked as he gaped at her. "That doesn't look like any princess I've seen!"

"Yeah," Riku said suspiciously. "In fact, you look more like… Maleficent."

Aqua smiled, looking quite satisfied with herself. "That's right, Riku. I wanted to do my own take on Maleficent. Showing that wicked elegance as well as the hints of a dragon. Watch this."

Suddenly, she spread out her arms, showing that the arm bands had fabric that hung down in the shape of dragon wings. Everyone let out gasps of shock and awe, with Sora going, "Whoa! That is so cool!"

Everyone else nodded in agreement, not expecting any of them to have a costume like this. Calmly, Aqua pulled her arms back and said, "Thanks for the compliment, Sora. And thank you, Namine, for helping me put this together."

"You're welcome, Aqua."

After another moment of thought, Terra realized something and said, "Wait a minute. I thought you girls had a certain pattern set. One of you girls would be a princess, and then get paired up with a 'prince'. If you're going to be Maleficent, Aqua, then that leaves me without a princess. Who's going to be Aurora?"

"Well, actually…"

Interrupting Aqua was a loud opening of the door as Axel burst out of the room, wearing a pinstriped suit of black and white, making him look really ghoulish. With a slightly concerned look, he said, "Hey, guys! Ventus isn't coming out of the bathroom! I think something's up!"

While most of the hallway's occupants looked towards the redhead with questioning looks, Roxas and Xion looked towards their friend with slight intrigue. Voicing their thoughts, Roxas said, "Wow, Axel, that's quite a costume."

Breaking out of his concern, Axel gave a small smirk and said, "Thanks, Roxas. I do make a pretty sexy Jack Skellington, huh?"

While Roxas rolled his eyes at the older man's tone, Xion smiled and said, "Well, you do look nice. But you need to look more like a skeleton. Or at the very least, more Halloween-like."

"Well, as soon as Aqua helps me with the face make-up, I should look more like him."

"Hold it, Axel! Go back to what you were saying earlier," Riku said urgently. "What do you mean Ventus isn't coming out? Is there something wrong with his costume?"

"I don't know, man," Axel replied, running a hand through his hair. "I tried asking, but he just said he wasn't going to come out."

Terra and Aqua stared back at each other with concern before silently agreeing that they had to check on him. So, they went back into the boys' hotel room, with everyone slowly following behind them. Calmly, they approached the bathroom door, and Terra spoke out, "Hey, Ven, are you okay?" No response came, so he threw in, "Do you need some help in there with your outfit?"

"No!" Ventus shouted from behind the door. "Don't come in here!"

"What's up, Ven?" Sora asked from behind Terra and Aqua. "Are you scared the costume doesn't look right?"

"I don't want to come out! I look stupid!"

Curiously, Sora looked over at Kairi and asked, "What did you make Ven wear?"

"Well, we wanted to try something different," Kairi said a little unsurely with a shrug.

"Come on, it can't be that bad," Roxas said calmly. "Seriously, if I can come out wearing potato sack clothing and Riku can come out looking like some pony-tailed pretty boy, you can't look any dumber than that."

It seemed that Roxas's words brought out a reaction, for suddenly, Ventus swiftly opened the door and glared out at everyone, shouting, "Trust me, you can't look dumber than how I look now!"

Ventus's face was beet red with anger and embarrassment, as everyone realized what Ventus was wearing now. As they saw their young friend in an elegant, blue dress with a lighter shade for the v-collar, their earlier question of who was meant to be dressed as Princess Aurora was silently answered. Everyone in the room stared wide-eyed at the strange sight before them for a few seconds before any sort of reaction came out of them.

After a brief pause, Roxas covered his mouth as a stifled laugh threatened to escape him. Axel, however, just burst out into boisterous laughter, bending over as he supported himself against the wall.

"Shut up, Lea!" Ventus shouted back, feeling furious with the taller man's amusement. "I don't think this is very funny!"

Axel took a couple of deep breaths before calming down to say, "Sorry, Ven… It's just… we didn't expect this sort of thing to happen… You have to admit it's a little funny…"

As Axel continued to chuckle, Ventus spent a moment glaring at him before turning his attention to Aqua, who was watching the scene with curiosity next to Terra, who was still standing slack-jawed and wide-eyed. Bitterly, the young boy asked, "Aqua, was this your idea?"

Knowing that he was a little worked up, the older woman said, "Ven, you have to calm down a little-"

"Was it?!"

Aqua let out a sigh and said, "Actually, it was Kairi's. She wanted to have one of you guys cross-dressing so we could have some variety in our costumes."

Ventus, Terra, Riku and Sora all stared at Kairi in surprise for a moment. Quietly, Riku mumbled, "Why am I not surprised that this was her idea?"

Kairi giggled a little bit, smiling mischievously. Ventus, after hearing Aqua's words, marched over to the princess of heart as best as he could, considering what he was wearing. Once he reached her, he said, "Kairi! What's wrong with you?"

"Oh, relax, Ven. This was all in good fun," Kairi said lightheartedly. "You should feel honored. We chose you to cross dress because we didn't think the other guys would be up to the challenge. And it looks like I made the right choice. Honestly, I think you actually look prettier than I do!"

This final comment seemed to switch Ventus's mood from furious to sudden, mind-shattering shock, and then to depression as he backed away and collapsed against the wall, wrapping his arms around his legs. Seeing this caused Kairi to stare back confused for a second. "What happened?" She looked back and forth between her friends and asked, "Was it something I said?"

Riku sighed, and Sora decided to pull her aside. Once they reached the back of the group, he explained, "You see, Kairi, guys don't like to be called 'pretty'. When you compliment a guy on his looks, you call him handsome, dashing, good-looking, even cute is a better word than pretty…"

"Or you can just call them hot or downright sexy," Axel said teasingly, cutting into their discussion.

The two of them, as well as those that heard him (those being Namine, Xion, and Roxas), gave him slight glares. Roxas hit him in the arm, mumbling, "Oh, shut up, Axel."

While this was going on, Terra and Aqua looked back at Ventus, who was still sulking in the corner quietly. Nervously, Aqua mumbled, "I feel kind of bad we made Ven do this..."

Terra, who finally shook himself out of his surprise, nodded and said, "I'll go talk to him, okay?"

Aqua nodded, and after seeing this, Terra went up to Ventus and knelt down so he could talk with him. "Hey, Ven. Relax. I'm sure Kairi didn't mean that. Why don't we get up and sit in a more comfortable place?"

"But Terra, I don't want to go out there," Ven mumbled as he buried his face into his legs. "I can't go out there. What will people say when they see me like this? I look stupid."

Terra sighed, knowing that this boy that was like a younger brother to him was not in the best of moods. It would probably take quite a bit to calm him down. Coming a little closer, he placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "To be fair, Ven, you do pull it off better than most of us guys could. It doesn't look that bad."

"That's the thing, though. I don't WANT to pull it off. I don't want to be seen wearing a dress…"

"Don't think of it like that, Ven. Think of this as…" Terra paused for a moment, thinking of how to complete his sentence, before finishing, "… becoming someone else for a day."

Terra looked down to see Ventus peer up at him from behind his legs. The older man smiled, taking this as a good sign, and decided to keep going with his thoughts. "You see, I think that's the whole point of dressing up at a convention. For at least a day, ordinary people get to pretend that they're someone else and act like they have a more exciting life than they really do." With a slight chuckle, he added, "I guess in our case, we'd be pretending our lives are a little less exciting. For example, Aqua can pretend to be a heartless monster, Sora gets to pretend to be a sailor, and I pretend that I'm a dashing young hero."

Terra smiled back at Ventus, waiting for a reaction. After a bit of a pause, Ventus let out a small chuckle before saying, "Terra, we all have keyblades. We're already dashing young heroes."

"Heh, I'm not really that much of a hero," Terra admitted with a small, slightly hollow laugh as he remembered past memories. Shaking it off though, he noticed the long, blond wig on the counter, no doubt a part of the young boy's costume, and calmly grabbed it as he said, "And you, Ventus, you get to be the real actor here and pretend you're not only a different person, but a different gender."

Gently, he placed the wig over his friend's head and said, "And I know you can pull it off. You've pulled off more incredible things than this before. The fact that I'm here with you all is proof of that. So, what do you say? Are you willing to give it a shot?"

Ventus looked back at his friend a little nervously, keeping his lips in a thin frown as he thought over Terra's words. After a while, he eventually sighed and replied, "Fine, I guess I can try. But only for today, okay?"

As he stood up, Terra followed suit and said, "Fair enough. I'm sure no one will mind, so long as you're joining us today." Turning back to everyone else, he said sternly, "Isn't that right, guys?"

One by one, everyone nodded and agreed not to push Ventus about this, with Namine saying, "Thank you, Ventus. I really appreciate it."

Looking back at her, Ventus sighed before making a small smile. "No problem. I know you worked hard at making these. Sorry for making such a scene."

"I don't know. I think it was kind of warranted," Riku mumbled quietly to himself so others wouldn't hear.

Happy to see her friend feeling better, Aqua came forward and said, "Come on, Ven. I'll make sure your wig is on properly."

Ventus nodded and went out to the door leading to the hallway. While he cautiously peeked out for anyone outside, Aqua turned back and said, "You come along too, Lea. I need to make sure your make-up gets done."

"Yes, ma'am," Axel responded in a mock salute before walking out, taking Ventus with him as he quietly assured the boy that he would be his shield in the hallway.

"We'll wait for you downstairs, Aqua," Terra told her. "I'll try to make some plates for the three of you."

"Thanks, Terra."

Seeing that everything else was taken care of, Aqua left to go back to her room to take care of Ventus and Axel. Everyone else began to make their way down to the first floor, looking forward to eating and getting their day started properly.

* * *

 **And now, we've reached the end of another chapter. So... Is it weird to say that this whole fanfiction got inspired because I wanted to put Ventus in a dress? I blame last month's trailer for Kingdom Hearts 2.8 for that. It was already bad enough that certain moments in Birth by Sleep have caused me to jokingly call him an "honorary princess of heart", but after that trailer, and one particular moment for the 0.2 gameplay (those of you that saw the trailer may know what part I'm talking about), I'm convinced that Square Enix wants the crossdressing fanarts and fanfics to happen.**

 **So, I think in one of the next two chapters, our cast will finally leave to get their badges and begin exploring the convention. I hope you all look forward to it. Thanks for reading today's update.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Good evening, fanfiction readers! Here is what I'm going to call my final "prep chapter" before the actual convention begins. While not much will be happening with this update, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura. I own nothing in this franchise.**

* * *

Downstairs, there were several hotel guests picking up breakfast items in the dining area: a good handful of them in colorful costumes. It was down here at a couple of tables that Sora and his friends watched the people walking by.

"Whoa! Check out that guy with metal arm!" Sora exclaimed as he pointed out a cosplayer with a red coat and blond wig. Before his friends could comment, his head whipped around as he spotted another interesting costume and said, "Whoa! How do you get away with wearing so little at these things?"

As Xion giggled at his antics and Roxas rolled his eyes, Kairi simply sighed and said, "Sora, you might want to eat before getting too excited over there."

Sheepishly, the young boy turned around and grabbed the donut he had picked up earlier. "R-Right. Thanks, Kairi. I guess seeing everyone in here makes me curious to see the rest of this convention."

As he began to scarf down his food, Kairi said, "Okay, but try not to rush through breakfast, okay? It's not like the convention has legs and is getting ready to run away from us."

"Yeah, and besides, if you keep eating like that, you're gonna end up choking," Roxas added, a little disgusted with how Sora was stuffing his face with a second donut.

Turning to his former nobody, Sora, with unchewed food still in his mouth, said, "Oh, come on, Roxas. I'm not that ca-"

Suddenly, he coughed hard and grabbed his glass of milk to clear his throat. As Kairi and Xion looked at him in concern, Roxas said, "There you go. What did I just say?"

Sora chose not to comment to this, instead taking deep breaths. "Man, went down the wrong pipe for a minute there…"

While they ate, Riku simply watched his friends' antics while eating a croissant. After a moment, he turned to Namine and asked, "So, are you excited for the convention?"

"Well, I have to admit, it is a little exciting to know what's going to happen," she replied quietly, cradling a cup of orange juice.

"I still can't believe what you girls did to Ven," Terra mumbled before finishing his coffee. "Seriously, how do you come up with something like that?"

Namine gave out a small giggle before saying, "Yes, it is a little strange, isn't it? From what I've heard, though, a lot of people at conventions cross-dress. When I shared that information with Kairi, she really wanted to see one of you guys cross-dress." After watching their other friends for a bit, the young blond dropped her voice before saying, "In fact, she was almost tempted to have Sora do it instead."

As Riku nearly spat out his drink, Terra raised an eyebrow and questioned, "Really now?"

The three of them observed Sora, now back to cheerfully eating after clearing his throat, and after a while, Riku commented, "Well, I guess I can see why. Compared to the rest of us guys, he is a little on the short side."

"Not to mention he is lacking in muscles," Terra added casually. "So, what made her not pick him?"

"Well, the four of us girls talked about it for a while. In the end, though, as much as Kairi wanted to pick Sora, we all agreed that Ventus had the better type of eyes suited for cross-dressing."

"Hm…" The two boys thought about this new information quietly, neither of them knowing what to make of it at first. Before either of them could make a comment towards that, Aqua came into the lobby, a little bit of blush added. Noticing her, Terra said, "Oh, hey Aqua. Finished?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I set a couple plates aside for you and Ven. I wasn't sure what you guys would want, so I just got some toast and eggs."

"Thanks, Terra."

Axel entered a few seconds after, now with make-up on his face that made him appear to have a stitched mouth and much bigger eyes. As Ventus clung onto him, hiding himself behind the taller man as much as he could, Axel gave a big toothy grin and said, "Hello! What are the breakfast options?"

"Well, Roxas and I got some scrambled eggs," Xion piped up. "There's also some cereal, donuts, bagels, croissants, and several different drink options."

"Great! I hope there's some leftover coffee."

As a few of his friends rolled their eyes at his response, Riku took note of the frightened boy behind Axel and said, "Hey, Ventus, do you wanna show us how Aqua fixed you up?"

"I don't know…" Ventus mumbled.

"Come on, Ven, the worst of it is over," Terra said calmly. "It can't be any more embarrassing than when you first stepped out in that dress, right?"

"But it's still embarrassing!"

"Well, you can't cling onto me forever, pal," Axel said teasingly. "Everyone's going to see you anyways; might as well get it over with now."

"I don't know... You guys are just going to laugh at me..."

"We won't laugh at you, Ven," Kairi said reassuringly. "We know this is awkward enough for you as it is. And plus, think of it this way; after you show us how you look, walking around in front of strangers will seem easy."

"That's easy for you to say, Kairi. You aren't wearing something totally ridicu- AH!"

"Gotcha!"

Unknown to the other heroes of light, Sora, without alerting anyone else, had gotten up from his seat and snuck over towards Ventus and Axel. Once he knew they were distracted, he had grabbed Ventus and pulled him out from behind his human shield. Now that Ventus was out in the open, everyone else could see that Aqua had spruced up his face with some light blush, bringing some nice color to his face, and that his wig had been straightened out so that the blond locks looked pretty identical to Princess Aurora's. After a slight pause in shock, Ventus looked towards his friend and shouted, "Sora!"

Sora just gave a mischievous grin, resting his hands behind his head, and shrugged as if saying "I had no choice". Meanwhile, Kairi and Xion both exclaimed, "Awww!" with Kairi throwing in, "You're so cute, Ven!"

Meanwhile, the guys stared back wordlessly for a while. Eventually, words did come out. The first to speak up was Terra, who merely whispered out, "Whoa…"

"Yeah, whoa indeed," Roxas murmured in response. "If I didn't know it was you under that wig, I'd swear you were a real girl."

"Yeah, Aqua, that make-up work you did was incredible!" Riku told the older woman, admittedly impressed.

As he heard all of these comments, Ventus's already rosy cheeks from the added blush turned even more red in embarrassment. Sensing his discomfort, Sora looked at him and said softly, "Hey, Ven. It's okay. Now that everyone's seen you, it'll be easier now."

Sora watched his friend give a quiet little nod. Seeing this as a good response, Sora smiled and added, "Besides, you really do look great."

"Mm… Thanks, Sora," Ventus mumbled before letting out a small breath and straightening up. Before grabbing his breakfast, he turned back to Sora and gave a small smile. Aqua and Axel followed suit and grabbed some breakfast before sitting with the rest of their friends.

After everyone got seated and was eating, Axel asked, "So, how big is this convention thing anyways?"

"Well, since the people running it reserved this entire hotel for the people attending and the map online showed that two buildings are being used for the actual convention, I'm guessing it's pretty big," Namine responded. "So, I think it would be best for all of us to have at least one person to stay with in case we get separated."

"That sounds like a good idea," Riku said, resting his chin on his hand. "I'm guessing we're pairing off based on our costumes?"

"That's right," Aqua answered with a nod. Calmly, she turned to Axel and said, "Lea, you aren't really paired with anyone in terms of costumes, so you should pick someone to travel with."

"Thanks, Aqua," Axel said with a grin, looking a bit more malevolent than usual, thanks to the make-up. "Personally, I would want to just wander between you guys all day, but maybe I'll just hang around my best pal to see how he does on his first date."

"It's not a date, Axel," Roxas exclaimed with a frown and a slightly red tint on his face.

"Sure, pal. Suuuuure."

As Axel gave a knowing smirk, Roxas's frown deepened, and a glare entered his eyes. "Don't give me that look."

As the two of them exchanged quiet looks with each other, everyone else discussed their plans about who would stick with who. While everyone would try to stay together throughout this convention, they acknowledged that some people would want to do different things. So, Sora and Kairi would be one pair, Riku and Xion would be another, Roxas and Namine would be the third pair, and Terra, Ventus and Aqua would be one big group. Once they managed to get their plans in order, Sora got up after finishing his food and said, "Alright, guys! Let's go!"

After taking Kairi's hand, he eagerly began to exit the dining area, leaving his friends to quickly get up and rush after him. While everyone had different thoughts running through their minds, everyone knew one thing for certain: the weekend of their first anime convention had finally begun.

* * *

 **Well, there we go. Like I said, this is the last "prep chapter". With the next chapter, we'll get to see the KH cast going through typical convention things. I don't want to make any promises (since at this point, I have no pre-typed chapters left for this story), but I will do my best to get the next chapter ready by next Sunday. I hope you enjoyed this update, and have a great night!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, I ended up taking a week off due to some job pressure and convention issues. I'm glad to give you all another update, however. Here is where the true experiences of an anime convention will begin for our young heroes. I do hope you guys enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura. I own only my own copies of each game, a plastic keyblade, a Sora wig, and some pieces of jewelry. But as for the franchise itself and its characters, I do not own.**

* * *

Within 20 minutes, Sora and company found themselves cramped in a long line for convention badges. Each person within the group harbored different feelings as they were moved along the line.

"Wow, I didn't think this line would get so long so fast," Riku stated, both surprised and a little impressed. "Do you think we should've woken up a little earlier?"

"Hm, I'm almost wondering if it would've made a difference," Namine stated casually with a slightly grouchy Roxas next to her.

Irritated, Roxas said, "We probably could've gotten down here earlier, but _**some**_ people wanted to try and sleep in!" He sent his glare in the direction of those that had slept in.

While Sora and Ventus didn't really pay his comment any mind (with Sora marveling at the cosplayers in line and Ventus struggling to keep his balance in heels), Terra frowned slightly and Axel made a casual shrug and said, "Sorry, Roxas. But I have to get my 40 winks each night."

"Oh, don't give me that. If Saix came with us, he would've dragged you off that couch, kicking and screaming!" At Roxas's accusation, Axel gave a slight sigh in defeat before they all moved forward in the line.

"Speaking of which, why didn't he come with us?" Aqua asked. "If it's because of the hotel's space…"

"Nah, it wasn't that, Aqua," Axel admitted. "Isa just felt a little uncomfortable traveling with us, what with what went down when we were taking out Xehanort and all."

"But, he knows we aren't holding any grudges, right?"

"Heh, you might not, Aqua, but he feels at least a couple of people here would…" With that, Axel's emerald eyes swept over Roxas and Sora, the latter still watching the cosplayers. Aqua simply frowned, not really sure how to respond to the redhead's words.

After another minute, the line shifted forward once again. As everyone moved forward, Xion gripped Riku's shoulder, wobbling a little. Slightly concerned, Riku looked over at her and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Still learning how to keep balance in these heels," Xion said with a nervous laugh.

"Come on, Xion. You used to wear heeled shoes in the organization, didn't you?" Roxas asked.

"Yes, but those heels were a little thicker. They had more stability than these shoes do…"

"Well, I sympathize with you, Xion," Ventus piped up, holding onto Terra's arm with a death grip. "How do you girls wear these? Oddly enough, I'm getting used to the dress… if only a little… but these heels are murder!"

"Well, it's something that even girls have to get used to, Ven," Kairi mentioned casually before following Sora as the line shifted again.

The group stood there, quietly conversing with each other for a while, until an unfamiliar voice said, "Hey, are you Sora and Kairi dressed as Ariel and Eric?"

Sora and Kairi turned their attention to the speaker to see a girl with a short black wig and wearing a brown jacket with a red scarf around her neck. Smiling, Sora said, "Yep."

"Wow! Those are great cosplays! Do you mind if I take a picture?"

"Oh, sure, go ahead," Kairi said excitedly before placing her arms around Sora. He merely grinned, and the two posed as the young girl took a picture, thanked them, and walked away. Once she left, Kairi squealed in delight and said, "Wow! Our first picture at this convention!"

Everyone smiled, finding the whole scene delightful. After a moment, Aqua said, "I guess we should be expecting a lot more people coming up to take pictures."

Aqua's words seemed to spark thought in Kairi's mind, and she asked, "Oh, that reminds me, did anyone bring a camera so we can get pictures?"

"Don't worry, I have one right here," Roxas said, pulling out a small camera from his pocket. "Pence lent this to me back in Twilight Town. He said we could borrow it for our trip."

"Awesome!"

"We have to make sure to get pictures of all of us so we can show Mickey and the others."

"Yeah." Roxas smirked a little mischievously and said, "And I know who to get first."

With that, Roxas peered around the line and pointed the camera's lens in Ventus's direction, only for the younger boy to squeak and place Terra in front of him. "Keep that thing away from me! Aren't you guys happy enough that I'm crossdressing? We don't need a picture of it!"

"But how else will we get everyone to believe this?"

"Hey, Roxas," Terra stated sternly before pushing the camera away. "Why can't you save that for after we get our badges?"

Roxas frowned but relented, figuring that he'd get Ventus later. "Fine, but like Aqua said, we have to get everyone on camera at some point."

"Yeah, yeah," Terra mumbled, not willing to admit he wasn't really fond of posing for pictures either: regardless of what he'd be wearing.

A few more minutes passed before the heroes of light finally reached the counter to purchase their convention badges. All of them were fortunate that the munny they gathered in their travels automatically changed into the proper currency for each world they went to; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to buy much in any world. So, once they paid for their badges and picked up their programs, they were out of the line and out in the lobby of the convention center.

"Isn't this neat, guys? Our first set of convention badges! If the worlds stay safe, maybe we can do something like this again!" Sora said cheerfully before looking at his badge. On the front was his name, written with a blue sharpie, and the badge was decorated with a picture of a green-haired anime girl with a stuffed panda and the words "A-Kon 2018".

As he marveled his badge, Riku said, "Alright, don't get ahead of yourself, Sora. We should see how this convention goes first."

The brunette nodded, still smiling brightly. After a moment of watching the cosplayers and flipping through their programs, Namine asked, "So, what do you guys want to do first? It doesn't look like many events start for at least another hour or two. And we can't even enter the dealer room yet."

"Well, why don't we just get a feel for the layout then?" Axel suggested. "That way, we don't get lost."

"Could we maybe sit and take a break first, though?" Ventus asked, looking around for a free chair but sadly finding none. "My feet are killing me…"

"What?! Already?"

"Hey! It's not like I'm a girl! I can't instantly get used to these heels!"

As some of the group either laughed at Ventus or tried to help him feel better about his shoes, Terra and Aqua looked around the lobby area, watching people sitting on the floor and eating food, messing with handheld gaming devices, and even taking pictures or videos. A little impressed, Terra said, "Wow, they're even making videos?"

"They must really like getting into their roles," Aqua mentioned next to him as she watched a pair seemingly act out a scene like they were a couple. Giggling, she said, "It must be fun to put on a show for other people."

"Yeah…" Terra glance back over at Ventus's still slightly wobbly form, and then a sudden mischievous smirk appeared on his face. Before Aqua could ask him about it, the older man walked over and said, "Let me help you there, Ven."

"Huh? What do you-" Ventus suddenly gasped as he felt Terra grab him around the waist. As he lifted his friend into a bridal carry, the young blond sputtered out confused protests and blushed a deep red. After several seconds, he finally got out a coherent statement. "Terra! What are you doing?!"

"You said your feet were killing you, right?" With a slight teasing look on his face, he finished, "I just thought I'd help my 'princess' feel a little better."

"Oh my god…" Ventus buried his face into Terra's chest in order to hide his embarrassed blush. Meanwhile, cosplayers around the group of friends let out "d'awwwws" and some even got out their cameras to take pictures or videos.

Smiling, Terra thought to himself, _'Good, now to give these guys a show.'_

"Terra? Don't you think you're taking this a little too far?" Riku asked, taking note of how uncomfortable Ventus looked and how much attention they were getting.

Aqua decided to speak up as well and said, "Riku's right. Ven is already feeling weird with this whole group cosplay. We should give him a minute to-"

"Hey, I'm just trying to protect 'Aurora' from your evil clutches, 'Maleficent'," Terra responded, giving Aqua a playful smirk.

"What? What do you-"

"What? Are you scared because you know your powers can't defeat me?" Terra now felt himself getting a little too into his role, not only because of who he was dressed as, but also because he felt like this was his way of feeling like the real Maleficent couldn't defeat him anymore.

Aqua gaped only for a second as she noticed the cameras on them and saw just what Terra was doing. Sending a glare his way for forcing them to act out so suddenly and out of nowhere, she growled, "Oh, that's it. You are _**so**_ asking for it, you foolish 'prince'!"

Terra felt a mixture of triumph at pulling Aqua into their act and dread for what Aqua could do to him if she got her hands on him. So, he immediately ran off to the first immediate hall of panel rooms while Aqua pursued. After watching them disappear around a corner, with several cosplayers following with their video recorders, Sora and his friends stood quiet for a moment before the majority of them let out laughter: Axel and Roxas in deep amusement while the Destiny Island trio did so in slight confusion. Namine and Xion, on the other hand, simply stayed confused. After a while, Xion finally just asked, "Um, what exactly was that?"

"I don't know, but it was pretty random," Sora said after calming himself.

"I'll tell you what that was," Roxas said as he wiped the tears out of his eyes. "That was Terra tapping into his inner spontaneous actor! If we experience something more random than that this weekend, I'll be surprised."

"Heh heh, yeah," Axel mumbled, still giving off mirthful laughter. Once everyone was calm, he said, "But in all seriousness, perhaps we should follow them so we can explore this convention center together."

"Yeah, you're right. Come on, guys," Riku said, taking the lead as everyone followed behind him. As everyone went down the hall that they saw their "Sleeping Beauty" cast run down, they all shared different thoughts about what had just happened. One thought was shared among them, however.

If Aqua truly was angry with Terra, he was truly going to get it.

* * *

 **And there you have it. So, is everyone okay with the fact that I'm using A-Kon for the convention the KH cast is going to? As I was thinking of where they could go, I remembered the first truly big anime convention I ever went to. So I figured this would be a fun place for them to go. Now, as for why 2018? Well, with KH 2.8 releasing early 2017, I'm just making a prediction that KH 3 will release either late 2017 or early to mid 2018. And since A-Kon is usually an early June convention, I just figured the timelines would add up. (of course, if it's revealed that KH 3 releases after that point, then this won't make a lot of sense...)**

 **Speaking of trailers, who got to see the latest opening cinematic for KH 0.2 last week? The graphics and music look positively stunning, and as a fan of the BBS trio, it did trigger some feels on my end. Of course, with the final image in the trailer, it reminded me why I put up my "Returning Wayfinder" trilogy before more trailers or cinematic scenes were revealed, because I feel like my vision for "Fishing in the Dark" is definitely not happening anymore. And since I already got a negative review telling me that the story wouldn't happen because of certain plot details in previous games (despite the fact that countless other fanfics do similar things that I did), I'm almost expecting more negative reviews.**

 **... Sorry for that little ramble. When I get really excited about things, I just tend to go into great detail about things, and then I talk about things that aren't relevant to the current topic... Anyways, for those of you that are first reading this chapter on October 31st, 2016, Happy Halloween! I hope you guys have a great night, and please continue to follow this story!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Merry Christmas, fellow fanfiction readers and writers! As my little gift to you all, I finally got back to working on Kingdom Konvention. I swear, with each chapter, it gets harder and harder for me to find a good way to make each chapter, but more on that after the chapter. So, enjoy reading.**

 **Disclaimer: For Christmas, I did not receive the rights to the Kingdom Hearts franchise. This series is owned by Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura.**

* * *

It was nearly 11 AM, and A-Kon was in full swing, with countless cosplayers roaming the halls of the building. Currently, Sora and his companions were exploring the artists' gallery, where they found out that people could sell their own personal merchandise separate from any sort of company. Some of the gang, such as Namine and Kairi, took a natural shine to these stands, more so marveling at the creations instead of settling on something to buy. A couple of the group, Terra and Axel, didn't show any particular interest, and everyone else had varying levels of intrigue.

Speaking of Terra, he was currently trying to console Aqua, who was still a little irritated with the sporadic "episode" he had caused that morning. With a sigh, he said, "You need to learn to take a little joke, Aqua. I was just getting into character."

"Don't give me that, Terra," Aqua mumbled, not at all pleased with him. "The next time you want to make a scene and draw attention, try and think about everyone else around you. None of us were prepared for that. And what if we had gotten separated? Or hurt? We're here to have fun: not cause accidents or destroy the world order."

"But nothing happened…"

"Yeah, you need to lighten up, Aqua," Axel said casually, a smile on his face. "After all, you guys didn't hurt anything, except maybe Ven's masculinity." Ventus frowned deeply at that comment while the redhead continued. "Plus, Sora's constantly broken the rules of keeping the world order in check, and I don't see you guys get on his case."

"What?" Sora piped into the conversation, a look of disbelief on his face. "Since when did I break any rules?"

As if on cue, everyone recited different instances, either from their experiences or from hearing Donald and Goofy talk about it. "Well, there's openly talking about the keyblade…"

"Bringing in friends as summon spells…"

"Getting involved in different world politics…"

"Introducing spells in worlds lacking magic…"

"And, how about, oh, I dunno…" Everyone chorused, "Telling people about the existence of other worlds?"

Sora squirmed a little under the gazes of his friends before finally relenting and saying, "O-Okay, maybe I broke a couple of past rules set by keyblade masters, but it didn't hurt anything, did it?"

Everyone else sighed and turned back to the stands, with Riku mumbling, "Perhaps not yet, Sora, but I swear, one of these days, you're going to cause a universe-ending paradox if you aren't careful…"

Sora pouted for a little bit at his friends' words towards him, but he was soon swept back into his cheerful nature as Kairi pointed to him a stand with colorful buttons. The next couple of minutes were spent with the gang going back and forth between stands. It finally stopped as Namine spotted a stand that caught her interest. She looked in awe at the different posters of characters at the stand and watched the woman behind the stand working on a sketch.

Noticing that she had paused, Roxas came up to her and said, "What's up, Namine? Found something you want?"

He followed the young girl's gaze and saw the artist at the counter. Not too sure what she found interesting, Roxas looked for a sign. What he found was a paper that said, "Commissions - $25".

"… Commissions?" Roxas asked, not sure what the word meant.

"That's right." Roxas turned to look at the woman behind the stand looking at him with a smile. "For $25, I'll draw a picture of whatever character you want."

"Oh…"

As Roxas looked at the posters on display to know what her pictures looked like, Kairi came up and asked, "Are these pictures limited to characters from certain shows?"

"Not necessarily. So long as I have a reference of the character, I can usually work with it."

"Interesting…"

"Hey, guys, can't we move on to the next stand?" Axel asked. "We don't need to pay for someone else to draw pictures for us. Besides, last I checked, Namine was a good enough artist; if we want something drawn, we can just ask her."

Axel got a few disapproving looks from his friends. In a scolding tone, Aqua said, "Axel, don't say that in front of the stand; that makes you come across as rude."

"Well, I'm just saying, if you buy something, it should be for something we can't get easily!"

Aqua gave him one last scolding look before turning back to the person running the stand. "I'm sorry about his behavior, ma'am."

"Don't worry, a lot of people are rude in the world," the stand woman said, a hint of humor in her tone. "By the way, can I get a picture of you? That's an impressive Aqua-Maleficent cosplay you have there."

"Oh, sure. Go ahead." Aqua smiled and posed as the woman took a picture of her. Once they were done, the woman turned to Namine and said, "Hey, so, you're an artist then?"

Not expecting the attention, Namine thought for a moment before saying, "Oh, well, I haven't done much lately, but yes. Drawing does help me relax a little."

"You should check out the art panel at 4 today." Once Namine gave her a questioning look, the other woman said, "It should be listed in the program. I think it was called 'A Beginners Guide to Making Manga'. It might help you out with your fanarts."

Looking at the other girl, Roxas said, "But, Namine doesn't do fa-"

"Oh, I'll think about it. Thank you," Namine interrupted, cutting off her friend. After saying farewell to the woman at the stand, the group turned away to walk past the stands back to the lobby.

As they walked, Riku said, "Well, I guess that's an idea for a panel we could do today."

"But, I'm not really into artsy things," Axel said with a sigh.

Riku rolled his eyes, mumbling, "Then don't go, but when you don't have a group to walk with and get lost, don't complain about it."

"Actually, I'm not too sure about it, either," Terra mumbled. "I've never really cared much about learning to draw. I'm not saying it will be a boring panel: it probably will be fun for anyone wanting to work on their ability to draw. It's just not something I'd want to go to."

As everyone took this in, Ventus said, "Don't worry, Terra. We can probably find something else to do at 4. When we get to the lobby, let's look through it."

"I like that idea," Sora said happily. "And maybe someone else can look for a place we can get some food while we look through it!"

Everyone voiced agreement to this idea, and after looking at a few more stands in the art gallery, they went to the lobby to take a seat and get some food. By the time they got there, it was nearly 11:30, which meant that soon, the dealer room would open, and even more surprises would be discovered.

* * *

 **I swear, it gets trickier and trickier for me to make these chapters. On top of not being used to working on such laid-back stories, I never know if I end these chapters properly. In a way, it reminds me of when I first made some one-shots on my last fanfiction account (which I won't be promoting, mostly because I want to do more stories on this account). So, I hope this story is keeping some interest with you guys. I'm already contemplating on what to do in the future. Until the next update, have a wonderful holiday, and may your New Year's Eve be wonderful!**


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